The Return of Hope
by ice-meets-fire
Summary: Draco reached out and grabbed her fading image, and left a kiss on her lips. He managed to mumble ‘I love you’ before he saw her smiling figure disappear with the swirling lights. Her lips mouthed something to him and he heard it loud and clear. Review? P


**A/N: Ello! I've been slacking on my fanfics, but I was at a lost for plot bunnies. Until I read one fanfic by Lyra Silvertongue2 called Snap Me Back to Hell. Don't worry I didn't copy it of her. But its along the same lines, or maybe I should let you just read it and decide yourself. By the way, I need some help in The Seer and the Soulmate story, anybody wanting to help can email me at samseah hotmail .com (join the spaces together). I really should just let you read this… I got carried away. Sorry.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters in Harry Potter.**

**The Return of Hope  
****By ice-meets-fire**

He was blindfolded. Or was he just blind?

Darkness was surrounding him, no, it was in him. Wait was there even a 'him'?

He couldn't be sure anymore. Perhaps he was just an 'it'. Nameless, mindless…yes perhaps he was nothing more than… nothing itself.

How long had he been there? Did time even matter anymore? Did it exist? Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years do they really matter?

Not to him they didn't.

He felt a muscle twitch and pain erupted along the length of his lower body. His legs? Yes that was the name for them.

Deep in his mind, there was this vagueness. Doubt. Uncertainty. A questioning thought. Was he always like this?

Something in him protested loudly. Yet he all he could ever remember was the darkness, the nothingness he felt at that moment, a blank, nothing.

Wait. Light. There once was light. Yellow, orange, red. Little bits of memories inched back into his mind. Colours flooded his mind, re-teaching him forgotten knowledge.

But there was one specific colour which glowed bright in his mind. Chocolate brown.

Why? Of all the colours, red, blue, green, why brown?

Pang! Another thought burst into his long-unused mind. Emotion. Love, hate, anger… pain.

There was a dull ache in his chest. Knowledge of the human anatomy was blurred through his mind.

His heart. That's where the pain was. But why was there pain?

He didn't have to mule over this thought for long though.

The pain acted as a catalyst and triggered all of his memories. Images, pictures and visions filled his once empty mind and a name rang and echoed throughout his mind. The name brought out his deeply buried pain, anger and hurt.

Hermione.

Images poured out in dejected visions.

Dark eyes. Curly, unruly hair. Laughter. Happiness.

He remembered their first kiss and tears brimmed his eyes.

No there was no pain there. Not yet.

Dark night. Searing pain in his arm. Snake. Prophesy. Dark Lord. Potter. Deaths. Green flash of light.

Now the pain came. Perhaps you thought the green flash killed either of the two above. You thought wrong. A girl, not more than 17 years of age, rushed in front of it and well… you know the rest.

The memories were given to him, told to him like a story, a fairy tale. If only it were just a make-belief, but pretending would not take the pain away. He felt as if his heart had been ripped out, thorn out of him, muscle by muscle, tendon by tendon, until there was nothing but an empty space in its place.

It took away his reason for living, his reason for being, his life. What was the point of carrying on living? Nothing was worth living for unless she was there by his side.

Her voice was what he woke up for. Her laughter, his salvation. What would save him now? Now that she was gone?

All at once the darkness was gone, replaced by nothing but white light.

He cringed and closed his eyes to protect himself from the blinding illumination.

Then as he slowly opened his eyes, a figure materialized in front of him. Her.

He was too shocked for words. Could it be? He was too scared to blink, afraid she would be gone if he did.

She opened her mouth first.

_Draco._ Her voice echoed through the room.

So he did have a name. And so he was Draco Malfoy. Son of Lucius and Narssisca Malfoy. Protégé of the most feared Death Eater of Lord Voldemort's reign.

He found his voice sometime in the next eternity and asked her a question he had kept inside.

"Am I in heaven?"

"No." she replied in her heavenly voice, a small smile graced her face.

"It's not your time to go Draco. Your friends and family are worried about you, you have been asleep for two weeks, nothing they could to wake you up. Look." The white light swirled and changed colour and an image appeared.

His mother was beside him, her tear-stained face blanked with worry as she held his hand and sleep by his side. His old Slytherin friends coming and going. Even Ron or Harry sometimes visited.

This surprised him. How—? Why had they? He didn't even know they had cared. No, he wasn't only talking about Ron and Harry, he was wondering about all of them. Guilt rose in his heart but there was still a blank space which he felt could never be healed.

"You have to get over me, live your life the way you always said you would. Remember? Rebuilding the corrupted wizarding world?" she continued.

"But you promised you would stay by my side, support me all the way. Be my wife." Draco protested like a spoilt child, stubbornness shining through.

"I know, dear Draco, but it wasn't the life I was meant to live, the fates had already decided my destiny. I was supposed to take the curse and ensure good triumphed over evil. But you're different, go live your life, don't worry about me." Tears could be seen shining in her eyes, staining her beautiful smiling face.

"But I need you. I—I can't live without you. I need your support, your love." Draco broke down and sunk to his knees, tears streaming down his face.

She stooped and held him in her arms. A silent comfort.

"I know, I know. But I can't be there, my on earth time is up. But believe me when I say this: I never regretted a single moment I spent on earth, and I never will. I will always love you and remember so long as I live in your heart, I never really died. I will always be with you, by your side, supporting and encouraging you all the way." Hermione whispered in his ear.

Draco felt something wrong. He knew that she was going but he didn't want her to. Then as he looked in her eyes, he understood.

Now a new emotion filled him. One he had not felt in a long time.

He felt hope. It filled him up and eased the pain, repairing his broken heart.

Draco reached out and grabbed her fading image, and left a kiss on her lips. He managed to mumble 'I love you' before he saw her smiling figure disappear with the swirling lights. Her lips mouthed something to him and he heard it loud and clear.

He knew what she said was true. He couldn't live his live out the rest of his life a useless person, sulking and feeling sorry for himself. He promised to rebuild the wizarding world. Help cleanse and rid the world of its evil counterparts. Be the man she would wish him to be.

And with new hope shining in his heart, Draco Malfoy opened his eyes.

In the months which followed, he did as he promised, knowing all along that Hermione was up there watching over him, guiding him and supporting him just like she said she would.

The five words she spoke before she dissolved in the lights were the words he recalled in hard times and it spurned him on, it was the reason he woke up for every day. It was what kept him going.

Those 5 words was what made him die a happy man years and years later when he had helped bring the wizarding world from the ruins it was reduced to, to an accomplished and growing society.

And with friends and family beside him, he died with a reply on his lips, "I'm coming Hermione."

He closed his eyes and a small smile played on his lips. Those present that day would say that they had seen a glow of light appear which shone down on him. And in that blinding light, some could make out two figures, one with white-blond hair and another with chocolate brown, arms around each other walking into the light, care free, star-crossed lovers reconciled. Together till the end of time.

All because of one person's return of hope. And those 5 words.

I'll be waiting for you.

**A/N: So how was that? Please review it for me, to let me know your opinion, its my first time writing a sad, tragedy and my first in dealing with character death too. Somehow I'm pretty glad with this fic. Oh did I mention, I nearly cried when I wrote this. Review? Please? **


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